China calls for increased control over esports
The Chinese authorities may be planning to take up the regulation of esports. The other day, People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China, proposed putting an end to the “chaos” in this segment of the gaming industry and starting to closely monitor the organizers of the competitions.
An article with such an appeal was published by People’s Daily on the social network WeChat. In it, journalists wondered “whether it is possible to cope with the chaos in esports.” They pointed out that sometimes esports players intentionally circumvent the rules in games, which is why viewers remain dissatisfied and make scandals.
“When tournament organizers decide to deceive the audience and make money on betting by arranging match—fixing, they not only violate the law, but also deal a serious blow to the segment,” People’s Daily wrote.
As the publication explains, because of this kind of fraud, some players become popular without any reason. This also harms the athlete himself, since he does not develop as a professional, and affects the entire segment.
Nevertheless, People’s Daily did not offer concrete steps to solve the problem.
It should be noted that according to the forecast of Tencent and the Chinese Esports Alliance, in 2022 the revenue of the local esports industry should be ¥215.7 billion ($34 billion).
The People’s Daily article was published on the eve of the Asian Summer Games (analogous to the Olympic Games). For the first time since 2010, they will be held in China — from September 10 to 25. Esports was officially included in the competition program at the end of last year. The tournaments will cover eight games, including PUBG Mobile, Honor of Kings, Dota 2 and League of Legends.
Over the past few months, China has tightened control over video games in general. For example, in September, children and teenagers were banned from playing more than three hours a week. In addition, since July, no online game has been able to get permission to release in the country.
